Plain Talk We’re Unequally Yoked COLUMN BY ROB BUKSAR Here in Northwest Indiana we’re again fe going through anoth- er economic beating. | |” q This year alone we are going to lose three ™ steel mills. Acme Street closed their doors earlier this year and is already a sad memory. Even after millions worth of modernization there was no competing with offshore material. Bethlehem Steel, which filed Chapter 11 earlier this year, is presently flirting with Chapter 7. They have already notified the county in which they reside they won’t be paying the $20 mil- lion in property tax which was formerly their share. For the second and probably final time LTV Steel has closed its doors. Emotions are presently running high over the LTV situation. Last week eight bus loads of LTV steelworkers took off for Washington, D.C. in order to demonstrate and focus some attention on their plight. It’s a valiant effort but I think it’s too little, too late. Since we allow every steel-producing country in the world to “dump” their cheap merchandise here there isn’t much of a need for LTV. Lots of new cheap steel warehoused all over. Also, when I look at the legal advantage foreign steel gets in “our” market and the brutal treatment industry gets from our government, there is only one conclusion to draw: Our fed could care less if LTV is alive or dead. Better off dead! It’s damn scary being 50-plus and having 30 to 35 years experience with nowhere to go and nowhere to replace an income. Is this a familiar scenario for some of us? Prior to our current “unholy free trade and globalization policies” a good man with experience wouldn’t be out of work for 24 hours. Why? Because all of our industry was always in need of good, experienced people. Of course most of that industry is gone, along with its personnel needs. My brother-in-law is one of the unfor- tunate thousands getting directly screwed by the LTV Steel deal. In a recent con- versation with him I thought he summed up the problem that killed him and has also killed thousands of others in daily diminishing industry. Simply put, “Free trade:” You see, if LTV reopened its doors tomorrow there would be little use for its capacity. In the two weeks of controver- sy on whether the mill was going to remain open, they lost all existing orders through cancellation. Furthermore, their customer base has now become irretriev- ably lost to the offshore boys. Foreign suppliers can make deals that just can’t be refused by domestic customers. The steel industry, like many others that preceded it, waited too long to take action. I watched them diligently for years. I never felt they really understood who, what, and where their real problems stemmed from. When they finally came to terms it was their own federal govern- ment. It was far too late. In light of a poor unrecovering economy, small and large business and business opportunities are disappearing daily. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost every month, business fail- ures are at an all-time high, and there is next to no choice for goods in the retail and commercial market. Also, with all these huge overwhelming circumstances confronting each of us daily, we’re still not getting it. Far too many of us think what we’re going through is a natural economic evo- lution or cycle. That given enough time our economy will right itself and circum- stances will bounce back to some degree of normalcy. Life and business in America will be “peachy keen,” just like the good ‘ole days. If you are one of the far too many who still believes this crap please come out of the ether. Nothing happens between _ this country and another without federal involvement, especially in the case of international trade and banking. The fed- eral government is always vigilant and involved. It blesses or curses whatever the prevailing powers-that-be want. It’s just that simple. If you like what you’re getting keep voting the same kind of folks back in office. Doing and voting the same will get you more of the same. Call your senator and local represen- tative and find out what he or she supports. Find out whether they back “free trade” or “fair trade.” They’re as different as night and day. If your local representative is a free trader his voting record has probably put a bunch of nails in your coffin and mine. This is the enemy. The fair traders are those who want international trade, but not at the expense of our own industry and stan- dard of living. The fair traders are the good guys in this fight, at least if you’re a domestic businessman and enjoy nation- al sovereignty. Hopefully these issues can be addressed through a trade organization that is committed to the survival of our industry and the traditional form of American life and business. As small domestic businesspeople we have to get out of the rationalization mode and begin taking on personal responsibility for preserving our markets and country. Most agree this is a noble cause but few are willing to roll